Under The Cover Of Night
by I'm Retired
Summary: Hei and Yin try to manage a secret relationship within the Syndicate.


As the melting sun bleeds into night, the weight of the day presses down on him, its burden as undeniable as his most recent sins. ...As irrefutable as his overwhelming desire to be untethered from the violent life he leads. He drags his feet home, the only thing keeping him moving forward at the moment being his partner's hand in his. His insides tingle with warmth when he gently pulls her inside. He hadn't really thought of it earlier, but now that they're together it's impossible not to notice how excited he is to have her alone. He's been waiting to have her to himself all day. Even still, despite his glee he figures spending this time together is probably the last thing they should be doing. If the Syndicate found out about them… He didn't even want to imagine what they'd do to her.

But after everything they've been through, everything they've discovered about where they fit into each other's lives… he couldn't find it in himself to care. He wasn't giving this up.

Carelessly, they settle down by the window. For a moment he merely sinks into her embrace, letting the violent sights of murder and gore finally escape him. The feeling is all encompassing, and for a long while it's like he can't breathe. He squeezes her, unclenching his jaw and relaxing his brow, -his everything. A slight tremor envelopes him as he sheds himself of the all walls he keeps around his heart. … Of all the things he keeps to maintain his hard unbreakable shell. It's taken him a long time to take comfort in the transition, to stop fighting the vulnerability.

Being with his sister, changing into this _thing._ This other being, this killing machine bred to feel not an inkling of empathy or sympathy for the life that surrounds it. Calling it torture seemed an understatement at this point.. But as the years went by, this identity became apart of him. It became all of him. It was not to question why he was, if there was a way back… a way forward. Staying the same ruthless contractor seemed like living in room full of broken glass: eternally painful, but if he stood still, his nerves would eventually grow numb to the shards poking through his skin.

For years, he'd been so preoccupied with obtaining that blissful numbness that he'd never thought to pull the glass from his feet. To step out into the unknown and escape his invisible captors. For a long time it never even occurred to him that the door might be open, waiting patiently for him. Though those first few steps toward recovery, sometimes treading through the rest of the fragments seemed far more treacherous than standing still. But she was so close. Right there on the other side of that daunting door. Despite how abnormal it seemed, she taught him how to be human, how to feel _alive_ again. And he knew she'd protect him. Just as he would her.

She pulls him in closer, away from his thoughts and closer to this moment. With his eyes shut tight, he takes in her warmth. For a moment he remembers the slaughter, the small war comprised of one of his darker hours. She feels his harsh panting beneath her and breathes in deeply, encouraging him to follow suit. He does. Taking a slow, deep breath he lets her calm him. She's so close to him, her body melding and curling into his seamlessly. He comes away from the darkness and smiles softly, weakly. Her nearness is virtually god-like and almost always enough to melt him. It's a strange feeling, but a delightful one.

However, despite his delight anxiety tugs at him, and he only crumbles further in her arms. He figures he should pull away now, he knows there's a chance she has work to do. Another mindless task typically assigned to dolls… one that violates her time and freedom. But even worse than that… if Huang were to catch them, it would ruin everything. He's certain he should send her back to the shop. To safety. ...But he doesn't. He can't.

He sinks lower down her body, soaking up the heat of her skin.

A sigh escapes his lips without him realizing it, and his grip on her becomes unknowingly tight. He licks his lips, suddenly aware of how much his steady yet, somehow hesitant touch remains poised and ready to give and receive all she's willing to offer. He leans in closer, willing to bend and yield to his desires for the sake of nothing more than this precious moment. His eyes meet hers, and for a moment the burden of his ever persistent loneliness eases off his shoulders.

He allows himself to be weakened by her light touch and bright eyes as she roams his broad shoulders and streaks her hands down his chest. He breathes out harshly, as she slides his coat off. The act of her removing any article of his clothing sending a bolt of exhilaration through him. He stares further into her depths, searching and finding the hidden emotion in her eyes. Her touch is far from extravagant, but he still shivers as she leans down and places a soft kiss on his shoulder. The thin layer of his undershirt isn't enough to shield him from her sweetness.

The strum of desire begins to blaze up through his veins.

A tightness coils in his stomach and he squeezes her desperately in response. He presses his cheek to her chest to fend off the dangerous untameable feeling. He's nearly silent as he whispers her name. Shepauses, gratefully taking notice of how the soft fondness in his voice makes it sound like a prayer. Her heart's beating against his ear, and he marvels at the defiant sound. He'd never truly stopped listened to such an unabashed sign of life before. For years that steady thumping had only been something for him to stop. Another life to end. His own heart quickens and he moves without thinking.

He's on his knees now, his body begging. With his desperate fingers at her ungodly soft waist, a hand crawls up her back. They haven't been doing this for long, but when he kisses up her neck, he knows it's okay. He presses harder, a lightness filling him as he pecks her.

She sighs his name, " _Hei..."_ and he gives a lengthy groan in response. Yin's usually so quiet during the day, hearing her voice now makes him alight with ecstasy.

He pauses for a moment, his eyes locking onto her pink, readied lips. They're full from her own bite, and his breath hitches with anticipation. Wasting no time, he kisses her hard on the mouth. He delves into her embrace without holding back. At long last he can let his soul sing with contentment at their togetherness. He melts into her softness, finally allowing himself to shed his hard unwelcoming exterior to reveal a tenderness he'd nearly forgotten he had.

She presses back and Hei tenses with desire. As the seconds tick on their passion takes on a new power, his brow furrows with lust and he has to fight to keep his mind in the present. After breathing her in for a long moment, he runs his tongue along her lips, hands shaking with yearning against her back. He sucks in a deep breath, suddenly weak with her scent and softness. He slides his hips closer to hers, every inch of him pleading for contact.

Yin gives a slight gasp at his boldness and Hei is alight with glee. He nips her happily; his heart racing while his cheeks flooding with heat. His other hand emerges beneath her petite breast without thought. He barely presses down against the underside of her precious swell before he pulls away sharply, his lips popping off her's.

He meets her eyes immediately, opening his mouth to apologize. He stutters clumsily, praying he didn't make too uncomfortable. His lips are tingling, still high off the buzz he gets from being with her. His stomach suddenly twists in discomfort, and he grits his teeth for a moment in embarrassment. He'd never touched her there before. He hardly knows what to say. Hei was good at being a contractor- at being the Black Reaper, but the average man he was trying to embrace when with Yin was more akin to Li in a lot of ways. So he continues to fumble through his words- knowing he was making things worse but being too awkward of a person to stop.

" _I'm so sorry! It won't happen again!"_ That's what he means to say, but the words get a little stuck as he looks at her. Her silken skin is flushed, and her violet irises are bright with things he can't explain. She's radiant. Soft and feminine, and _powerful_. And for staying so composed even now, she must be far more so than him. She blinks with a diluted shock. His unwitting eagerness surprises her for a moment, but there's an unexpected glint in her eyes soon after. She lifts her hand to the back of his head, ' _Go on,'_ She tells him without words. He returns to her lips with a fire in his chest and a body ready for surrender.

They sink closer toward each other. His hands absentmindedly travel to her hair, disturbing her ponytail. He combs his fingers through the many strands that had escaped her ribbon. Yin's eyes draw to a close and he watches in a daze. Her eyelashes, -which are darker than the other side of her lost moon, rest ever so gently on her pale cheeks. Hei can't quite explain it, but the contrast is stunning to him. A painfully strong sense of adoration twists in him. He pulls her onto his lap, her hands to his chest as he grasps at her softness- trying to find something to cling to as she sends him spiraling.

Their bodies mold to one another… swaying and tangling like the estranged waves of a wild untamable ocean. He kisses deeper, his muscles tensing as a mix of desire and satisfaction tighten in his stomach. Flushed with heat, Hei pulls away. He can do nothing more than stare lazily at the extravagantly simple beauty before him as he catches his breath.

Leaning over her he pulls Yin further into his embrace, kissing and nibbling on her ear softly. The action itself warms him. He'd done it without thinking, and somehow very the idea of such affection coming naturally makes him feel like even more of a man. He hides his smile in her hair, -it's loose and tousled around her shoulders now. He feels the soft press of her lips at his jaw and he breathes in the alluring lavender scent of her shampoo, briefly wondering how he's never noticed such a lovely detail.

But the thought flees from his mind as he feels Yin's warm palm upon his neck. It was a well-kept secret between them that his throat is a bit of a sensitive spot for him. In his line of work, getting choked wasn't in any way rare or surprising. The aggressive press of a contractor's hands could come at him from the front, they would wrapped cords around his neck from the back, many grappled desperately at a chance to reach him a he killed them. Hei could say for certain that he's experienced his fair share of windpipe closing headlocks.

He would have nightmares before, when his partnership with his sister remained and youth clung to them both. But those dreams, like Bai, had faded into obscurity. Hei no longer had a reason to be afraid anyway; With his new powers accompanying Bai's disappearance his opponents rarely ever got close enough to lay their hands on him. And yet, that muted sense of foreboding and dread remained.

It'd hardly even posed a problem for him until Yin touched him there for the first time. He'd snatched her hands away violently, gripping her wrists painfully whilst keeping her as close as he could manage. He trembled under her, wanting to dissolve into her embrace though knowing she was the cause of his distress. Yin had always played that role toward the beginning of their relationship. The cure and the killer.

Her touch was meant to be soothing. Tentative, explorative, romantic. And yet, Hei had returned to the battlefield at the graze of her gentle fingers. He was midst violent tangle, his fist closing tightly around a blond haired cold eyed contractor, and vice versa. It mattered not who had the upper hand before this paramount moment. It was nothing more than a battle of wills, the ultimate test of endurance. He'd squeezed himself to Yin, clinging to the sanity she'd granted him and letting her soft coaxing voice bring him back to reality.

He'd broken out into a sweat at the time. His breath was ragged and heavy, as if he'd actually fought. He kept his eyes shut tight long after everything else seemed to calm. Hei couldn't help it, Even now his heart palpitated, pumping a muted fear throughout his veins.

But in time, Yin had helped him make peace with it. -In her silent way of course. The few blissful nights they'd had the pleasure of sharing together wound up becoming something practically therapeutic for him. With her help, he'd found the words to express his distorted irrational fear. A way touch without pain. A way to wrap his yearning fingers around a woman who'd become his sun without being swallowed by her grand, unforgiving, scorching heat. At long last he's capable of facing the memories, the guilt and fear, the _trama_.

His gratefulness suddenly takes on a new weight. She didn't really need to concern herself with such a small detail. Such an odd little quirk could've easily been ignored; To think she decided to support him with something so irrelevant, so insignificant…

Her caress rescues him from his thoughts once more. Yin presses her mouth to the corner of his lips as her fingertips brush his adam's apple. She makes sure to pet him slowly, softly. Moving carefully, she runs a finger back and forth over his pulse, knowing how much that calms him. She pulls away from his lips to kiss under his chin. Hei gasps, slightly stunned to find that he's reacting in excitement rather than fear.

" _Hei,"_ He stills, taunt with desire and growing more and more ecstatic at the sound of her voice. Her speech is cloaked with anticipation, and the need for sensual gratification. Though her inflection remains monotone, he can hear the request she's trying to convey. ' _Can I kiss you?'_ Is all he hears. The way she laced those words into his name somehow introduces him to a euphoria so great he fears he'll never feel anything beyond it.

"D-Do it!" Hei grunts, barely able to get the desperate words out.

She brushes her parted lips over his neck, her soft feathery touch more gentle than anything he'd ever felt throughout the entirety of his existence. He gasps at the fluttering of her breath over his skin. Yin presses herself into his embrace, her flesh heating as she kisses him deeper. Her hesitant, cloying tongue licking tentatively at his throat. Hei stiffens before a shiver courses through him. His fingers curl around her form, completely out of his control at this point. -No trace of his traumatic memories to be found in this one perfect moment.

Yin wraps her arms around Hei's uncharacteristically compliant torso; And he places his grasp at the small of her back, and a fist in her hair in order to subdue the violent desire that wouldn't stop chasing him. As Yin kisses him she feels the steady thrumming of his pulse close to her mouth, wanting to tease him further, she moves to kiss him there.

Hei feels a whirlwind of heat and anxiety flush through him all at once. He squirms under her, knowing she can feel his thundering heartbeat against her lips. The thought of being so utterly exposed to her scares him, and yet… he's outright thrilled to be so close to another person. Especially someone as soft and patient as Yin.

He groans as she begins to suck and bite. Though Hei can't see his pleasure ridden expression, the redness of his face is a certainty, and his eyelashes brush his cheeks as he shuts his eyes in bliss. His moans grow lengthier and more frequent. The sound drifts through the air, egging Yin on and encouraging her to trace her long pianist fingers over his chest. Her touch is like fire, even through the fabric of his undershirt-

Wait…

Through the haze Hei hears laughter. The muffled sound is bleeding through the walls and a realization hits him instantly.

He gasps, quickly grasping Yin's shoulders in a weak attempt at getting her to cease her hedonistic attack on him. In his haste to be alone with Yin, Hei had completely forgotten to maintain his silence. It was already near impossible to hide noise through the thin walls of his cheap apartment, but in addition to his own carelessness…

' _Damn,'_ Hei thinks. They'd probably caught a glimpse of him slipping in with her too. He'd spent months building up a very shy private dynamic with his neighbors, but seeing him with a girl they'd never met before… hearing him _moaning through the walls!_ If he didn't stop this soon, he'd be bombarded in the morning without a doubt.

"S-Slow down," He pants. "My neighbors-!"

Yin pauses despite her own desire. She looks up in a heated cloudy daze, not understanding his point for a long moment. But her mind quickly catches up as she traces a lone finger down over his stomach under his shirt. She knows how imperative it is that their relationship remain a secret. If any one of Hei's neighbors gets a little too curious for their own good, they could find out a lot more than their forbidden coupling… and if Yin knew anything about humans, it was that they didn't take kindly to living in close quarters with assassins.

She pulls away from him, wringing her hands in disappointment. Most times Hei served as her only salvation from the woes of her blank empty life of servitude. And lately, he hasn't been able to spare even a moment of alone time with her in about a week. She sighed in dissatisfaction. Swiftly coming down from his high, Hei too dissolved into dejection. Her body language told him all she was thinking, and he couldn't say he didn't feel the exact same.

At first, being with her at all -even under such dire restraints- seemed like the greatest blessing he'd received since the gate's appearance. And while he still felt that way, of course… he could see the toll it was taking on her now. On the both of them. Hei is pulled from his thoughts as he catches the shimmer of Yin's hair in the dim lighting of his apartment.

He's mesmerized for a long moment until he realizes she's pulling her strands back up into a ponytail. He watches in muted horror as she secures a perfect bow with her violet ribbon. Hei mourns the free flowing silver tresses his fingers had so fondly explored earlier. Yin with a head of disturbed, messy locks was a beautifully rare sight indeed… so seeing her clean up just moments after he'd gotten a hold of her seems like such a waste.

"Hei," Her newly melancholy voice beseeches him. "Should I leave now?" Something about her robotic tone sounds meek now, sad. Worse than that, she's not asking him if he wants her to stay, she's only wondering if the coast is clear.

Determination crosses over Hei's face. Staring down into the disappointment flooding her deep abyss-like eyes, he understands more clearly than ever that he had to do more… Resolutely, he decides there's no sacrifice he isn't willing to make for her.

On all fours, he crawls within inches of her ethereal form. A hand reaches out to cup her face as he speaks in an intense, heated, deep-voiced whisper, "You're not leaving."

He kisses her hotly, giving a lengthy peck designed to draw her in for more.

"It's quieter like this…" Hei smiles, satisfied with himself. His grin only deepens once the clouds from Yin's eyes disperse and she gives one of those rare tiny smiles of her own. Unable to resist, he just barely brushes his lips over Yin's, teasing both her and himself. Yin moves closer, gripping the straps of his undershirt with a hungry annoyance.

Finally, Hei parts his lips and presses down on her with all the affection he possesses.

* * *

Hours pass before the couple is satisfied with their time together. Though Hei planned for Yin's time with him to be short, he didn't have it in him to send her home. Deciding there's no real harm in it so long as they're together, he lets her stay over. -Much to her own delight. Enveloped in one another's embrace, they fall asleep within minutes.

But things turn sour come 3 am.

"Hei?" He hears the soft footsteps too late. "Wake up, Yin's missing from her post again. We have to go sear-!"

Hei shoots up at the sound of Mao's voice. At first he's disoriented and completely unaware of the situation. But the sickly icicle of fear slinks itself down his spine a mere second later. He makes eye contact with the cat, the moment instantly robbing him of deniability. There's nowhere for either of them to hide... His limbs are still tangled with Yin's, with a needy hand on her stomach, forcing her undershirt turned nightshirt to ride up against her bare skin. He figures he must've kicked the blanket off in retaliation against the hot summer night, because the covers lay crumpled at his feet.

His heart only thunders louder as he feels Yin's steady hand upon it. She's still nestled within a deep slumber, -though Hei figures she's dreaming of him when he feels her lean up slightly and give his neck a soft kiss. Hei has no time to appreciate the rarity of the gesture, however. He's forced to watch in horror as a visible shiver travels through Mao fur, his tail high up in the air and as stiff and unmoving as a board.

"Wait!" Hei finally manages. But the meager effort is fruitless. Mao gives a feline shriek on instinct before jumping off his window sill and disappearing into the night.


End file.
